Ari Emanuel’s Appetites

Though I have never worked in film, and never plan to, I empathize with the melancholy as Hollywood devolves into freefall. At its peak, was there ever a more aspirational industry? I know someone who would answer that question with a firm “no”: Ari Emanuel, the superagent whose memoir Roll the Calls was published in late September, right around the time the very word “agent” became permanently mutated by the tech industry. 

Written like free jazz, the attention-deficit mogul gives readers a look into what it was really like at the top of the industry in the early aughts (in a manner different than his fictional counterpart, Ari Gold, did over eight seasons of Entourage). Before cracking it open, I placed my bets on which restaurants he’d mention. Given the era, I was certain that Urth Caffé, the crunchy, uber-health conscious coffee shop where all the parking was snapped up by staked-out paparazzi, would make an appearance. (Side note: I was entertained to learn that Urth Caffé, since its heyday, has opened locations in Las Vegas, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai.) Surely, there must be a deal or two made over chicken alla Sidney Beckerman at the old-school red sauce joint Dan Tana’s. (This assertion was informed by having once seen Kevin Connolly—the actor who plays E on Entourage—at the bar there, and then having my waitress affirm that he is a regular.) Most confidently, I would tally every mention of Musso & Frank’s.